1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a node for use in an intelligent communications network for providing a network-based information service, and to a method of operating an intelligent communications network to provide such a service.
2. Related Art
In the last few years there has been a considerable increase in the number of documents that are in electronic form and are made available by various Information Service Providers, with or without charge, to the public via the World Wide Web. As an example, many newspapers are now in electronic form and can be viewed by download from the Information Service Provider""s website.
Where an Information Service Provider charges for access to documents (herein referred to as information items, or just items), the manner of charging can vary from Provider to Provider, and also from document to document. Before a person is granted access rights he has to execute an agreement with the Provider, under which he usually has to pay a periodic subscription fee (e.g. monthly, quarterly, or annual), and this may allow unlimited access to all the items retrievable from the Provider. If unlimited access is not given, there may be a charge based on the number of items accessed (retrieved) by the person, or the charge may be on an item basis, with some documents carrying a higher charge than others depending upon the commercial worth accorded to the documents by the Provider.
Furthermore, for each item that a person wishes to have access to, a separate access procedure (logon to the Provider) has to be performed, including providing a personal identification number (PIN). It can therefore be seen that where the number of items is greater than just a few, the proliferation of separate agreements, separate bills, separate logon procedures and PINs can be burdensome for that person, especially if they have to be changed at intervals and these intervals are not synchronised between the various Providers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,238 (Medamana et al.) discloses arrangements for providing pre-authenticated access from a caller to a service provider. The caller dials the number of the service provider and subsequently enters a personal identification number (PIN) or other suitable authentication data, and, if necessary, an account number. A data base in the communications carrier verifies that the caller has been authorised to access the service provider and that the PIN is correct for that caller and forwards the cal to the service provider only if both checks are satisfied. Only preauthenticated calls are delivered to the service provider, and the caller need only remember one PIN for all the service providers accessed by this arrangement.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a node for providing an information service in an intelligent communications network, the node comprising:
data storage means for storing customer identities, respective customer-associated lists of identities of information items, hereinafter referred to as items, for which the respective associated customer has access rights, and identities of item-associated information sources which store the respective items;
means for accessing the data storage means;
signalling means for receiving and transmitting messages;
means for reading an access request message received by said signalling means and providing at least a customer identity extracted therefrom; and
control means responsive
to the provision by said reading means of a customer identity not accompanied by an item identity to retrieve, via said accessing means, a customer-associated list corresponding to said customer identity and to send a message including said retrieved list to the customer via said signalling means, and
to the provision by said reading means of an item identity received in a reply message from the customer to retrieve, via said accessing means, the corresponding information source identity, to retrieve the requested item from the corresponding information source, and to send a message including at least the first page of the retrieved item to the customer via said signalling means.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a node for providing an information service in an intelligent communications network, the node comprising:
data storage means for storing customer identities, respective customer-associated lists of identities of information items, hereinafter referred to as items, for which the respective associated customer has access rights, and identities of item-associated information sources which store the respective items;
means for accessing the data storage means;
signalling means for receiving and transmitting messages;
means for reading a message received by said signalling means and providing at least a customer identity and an item identity extracted therefrom;
comparison means; and
control means responsive
to the provision by said reading means of a customer identity and an item identity received in an access request message from a customer to retrieve, via said accessing means, a customer-associated list corresponding to said customer identity and to provide to said comparison means said item identity and the retrieved list, and
to an indication provided by the comparison means of a match between said received item identity and a member of the retrieved list to retrieve, via said accessing means, the corresponding information source identity, to retrieve the requested item from the corresponding information source, and to send a message including at least the first page of the retrieved item to the customer via said signalling means.
An operator of an intelligent communications network incorporating a node of the present invention can make a single agreement with a customer for the provision of all the customer""s information service needs, whereby the customer has a single bill for all his accesses and makes a single payment, the customer has a single network number to dial for access to all his information services, and the customer can readily manage his list of items, by adding to it or deleting from it.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating an intelligent communications network to provide a network-based information service, the method comprising the following steps:
step axe2x80x94storing customer identities, respective customer-associated lists of identities of information items, hereinafter referred to as items, for which the respective associated customer has access rights, and identities of item-associated information sources from which the respective items can be retrieved;
step bxe2x80x94receiving at the network a message requesting access to the information service and comprising at least a customer identity;
step cxe2x80x94reading the contents of the received message;
step dxe2x80x94retrieving from storage the list of information item identities associated with the received customer identity;
if no item identity is received in step b,
step e1xe2x80x94sending said list to the customer; and
step e2xe2x80x94reading an item identity from a further message received from the customer;
or, on the other hand, if an item identity is received in step b,
step fxe2x80x94ascertaining whether or not that received item identity is in said list;
and for such item identity received in step b, if it is ascertained in step f that said received item identity is in said list, or, alternatively, for the item identity received in step e2, as the case may be.
step gxe2x80x94ascertaining the identity of the information source associated with that received item identity:
step hxe2x80x94retrieving the requested item from that information source; and
step ixe2x80x94sending at least the first page of the retrieved item to the customer.